<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>The Muggle-born Commission by crochetaway</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25390075">The Muggle-born Commission</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/crochetaway/pseuds/crochetaway'>crochetaway</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Hermione's Haven Bingo 2020 [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 12:15:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,707</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25390075</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/crochetaway/pseuds/crochetaway</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This was Hermione’s favorite time of year. She didn’t get to do this as often as she used to, but each year she always picked at least one family.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Hermione's Haven Bingo 2020 [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1833604</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Hermione's Haven Bingo 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Muggle-born Commission</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>
  <b>Created for Hermione's Haven Bingo 2020 Fest! This is for my I3 square which was the prompt: Diagon Alley.</b>
</p><p>  <b>No beta, just Grammarly. If you love this (or hate it) please let me know about in a review! Find me on Tumblr at crochetawayhpff.</b></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p>
<hr/><p>This was Hermione’s favorite time of year. She didn’t get to do this as often as she used to, but each year she always picked at least one family.</p><p>“Ready?” she asked the Sandersons as they exited a taxi in front of the Leaky Cauldron.</p><p>“Reay!” little Ellie Sanderson squeaked, holding tightly to her mother’s hand. Mrs Sanderson smiled at her daughter but looked less sure of herself and her husband was frowning.</p><p>“It’ll be alright,” Hermione assured Ellie’s parents. “What you’ve read in the books is history, truly. You’ll see.”</p><p>She guided them into the Leaky Cauldron where Hannah was behind the bar. The Leaky had changed drastically over the years. It still looked a bit seedy from the Muggle side, but inside it was like an entirely new establishment. Hannah made it warm and welcoming instead of the dingy, dodgy place it was when Hermione had first been through.</p><p>“Hermione! It’s good to see you!” Hannah hurried around the bar to give her a hug.</p><p>“Hannah, let me introduce the Sanderson family. Ellie will be starting Hogwarts in ‘24. It’s their first time,” Hermione said. “Mrs and Mr Sanderson, this is Hannah Longbottom. She owns the Leaky Cauldron. Her husband is the Herbology professor at Hogwarts.”</p><p>“You live apart then?” Mrs Sanderson asked after introductions had been made.</p><p>Hannah laughed. “No, wizards are able to Apparate or Floo across long distances almost instantly. We live up in Scotland, and I Floo here in the mornings. My night manager lives on sight.”</p><p>“If you like, we could have a spot of tea now,” Hermione offered the family. “Or we can wait until we’re finished shopping on our way back out to the Muggle side.”</p><p>“Let’s keep going,” Mr Sanderson said gruffly, staring at everything around him with suspicion. Hannah smiled indulgently and wished them all a good day as Hermione led the group through the back door and to the small alley behind.</p><p>“This brick,” she indicated the one marked with a small white x, “is how you get into Diagon Alley. We’ll get your wand today and you’ll be able to come back anytime you’d like.” She tapped her wand to the brick and smiled at the gasps behind her as the wall moved brick by brick to create an archway. The dustbins were long gone, and the brick was clearly marked for families like the Sandersons.</p><p>“Welcome, to Diagon Alley,” Hermione said, sweeping aside and gesturing for the Sandersons to enter.</p><p>Diagon Alley hadn’t changed much in the years since the war, but the attitude of the inhabitants had changed drastically. Hermione had worked hard creating a Muggle-born Commission that was designed to actually help Muggle-borns integrate into wizarding society better. They started younger, for one thing. The first sign of accidental magic when the child was old enough to talk and be reasoned to, about three or four for most, and a team from Hermione’s group made the first introductions into the magical world. They had an entire kit for Muggle-born families, mostly consisting of books and primers on the wizarding world as well as ancient and more recent history and the fact that the wizarding world was a secret.</p><p>Each team made contact with their assigned family half a dozen times before there was even mention of going to Diagon Alley. Hermione wanted to make sure each family was truly ready for what they would encounter. Besides, there wasn’t much a four-year-old Muggle-born would need from Diagon Alley. She liked to bring the children when they were six or seven for the first time.</p><p>Getting a wand was always top of the list. Without a wand, the family would always need to rely on someone else to help them access the Alley. She had toyed with the idea of setting up some sort of Muggle-born Floo network, but there were so many modern Muggle dwellings without fireplaces that it didn’t seem worth it.</p><p>Underage magic was still monitored, of course, but as long as nothing out of the ordinary happened, or the Muggle wards weren’t tripped, the Ministry mostly took a hands-off approach to it.</p><p>“Wow,” Ellie said as she led her parents through the archway. Her eyes were as big as Hermione had ever seen them as she took in the first few shops.</p><p>“Amazing, isn’t it?” Hermione asked. She relived her first time in Diagon Alley each time she brought a new family through. This was everything the magical world was supposed to have been when she was a child and wasn’t. It was why she had worked so damned hard to make it happen for others.</p><p>“Where, exactly, does one purchase a wand?” Mr Sanderson asked, not quite as gruff as before as he leaned toward the windows of Flourish and Blotts, trying to read some of the book titles.</p><p>“Ollivanders, of course,” Hermione said, guiding them toward the wand shop. “The Ollivander family have been providing wands to Britons for over a millennium.” She pointed to the sign above Ollivander’s showing it had been around since 382 B.C.</p><p>Mr Sanderson frowned at the date, clearly trying to orient himself in history.</p><p>“Wizards live long lives, Mr Sanderson,” Hermione smiled at him. “Our current Mr Ollivander is celebrating his 112th birthday this year.”</p><p>Mr Sanderson made to enter the shop, but Hermione stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Sorry, the wand will be next, but first we need to exchange your Muggle money for wizarding money.”</p><p>“Oh, Gringotts, right?” Ellie asked. “They have goblins there!”</p><p>Hermione laughed. “Yes, the goblins are in charge of our banking system. Very good with money.”</p><p>Mr Sanderson grunted.</p><p>“Gringotts is down toward the end of the alley where it turns from shopping district to residential. Diagon is the chic place for all of the young witches and wizards to live.”</p><p>“What about folks with families?” Mrs Sanderson asked.</p><p>“Some families do live here, but most find village life a bit easier. There are mostly, or all wizarding villages all over Britain,” Hermione explained. “My husband and I live near one, Ottery St Catchpole down in Devon. It’s a mix of Muggle and wizard.”</p><p>Ellie stared at everything as they made their way to the bank while Hermione kept up a running commentary about most of the stores they passed. It was way more of an introduction than she had gotten her first time through Diagon Alley. Then she and her parents had been met with suspicion, glares, and being out-right ignored by certain shopkeepers.</p><p>It was a breath of fresh air when various denizens stopped to say hello and introduce themselves to the Sandersons.</p><p>The goblins were the goblins, however. They were cranky no matter how friendly you were with them. Ellie hid behind her mother as Hermione and Mr Sanderson spoke with the teller.</p><p>“You’ll want an account for Ellie when she goes to Hogwarts, but there’s no need to open it today,” Hermione told Mr Sanderson. “The Muggle-born Commission will send someone to help you get it opened when it’s time.”</p><p>“Why do they need to send someone? I’ve opened a bank account before,” Mr Sanderson said as they turned away from the teller.</p><p>“Unless you or your wife speak Gobbledegook, you’ll want someone from the Muggle-born Commission there. Witches and wizards are much better than they were when I came through here thirty years ago, but the goblins haven’t changed one bit. They’d fleece you with account fees and a no-interest account if you let them. It’s just in their nature to hoard as much wealth as possible and to take advantage of those they perceive to be in a weaker position than them.”</p><p>“Seems ghastly,” Mrs Sanderson said.</p><p>Hermione shrugged. “There have been wars fought between wizards and goblins over all sorts of things, banking was one of them. Goblins being in charge of the wizarding banking system has held the peace for the last three hundred years. Sometimes, the wizarding world is as harsh as the Muggle one can be.”</p><p>As they made their way back to Ollivanders, Hermione began asking the Sandersons questions. Where they lived, what Mr and Mrs Sanderson did for work (he was a sales manager and she an accountant), if they had any other children, Ellie’s first bout of accidental magic.</p><p>That was her favorite, hearing about the first instances of accidental magic.</p><p>“I levitated my dummy back into my crib,” Hermione confided in Ellie. “And my daughter repaired her teddy bear when she found it ripped. My son shut his door from across the room when he was trying to sleep.”</p><p>“I mended one of my stuffed animals too!” Ellie shouted. “My foxy! Remember, Mum? Dad?”</p><p>Mr Sanderson smiled and placed his hand on Ellie’s shoulder. “We remember. Couldn’t figure out for the life of us what happened to it. That was just before the Muggle-born Commission showed up for the first time.”</p><p>Hermione smiled, glad that the work she had spent her life on was helping Muggle-borns become more integrated into the wizarding community.</p><p>“Here’s Ollivanders.” She opened the door, gesturing the family inside.</p><p>Hermione sat on a chair in the front as Mr Ollivander led them through his spiel and began giving wands to Ellie to try. When she found one suited for her, a 9 ⅞ rowan with unicorn hair corn, a golden aura lit her as sparks spilled from the tip.</p><p>“That’s the one,” Ollivander said proudly with a small smile. “A good one it is too, Miss Sanderson.”</p><p>Hermione and the Sandersons spent the rest of the afternoon in Diagon Alley, slipping in and out of the various shops before retiring to the Leaky Cauldron for tea.</p><p>“This has been the best day ever!” Ellie exclaimed.</p><p>Hermione and the Sandersons chuckled. “I was quite nervous at the start of the day,” Mrs Sanderson admitted. Mr Sandeson nodded.</p><p>Hermione reached out to touch Mrs Sanderson’s arm. “There’s nothing to fear in the wizarding world.” <em>Not anymore</em>, she added silently. Happy with all the work she had done to get the wizarding world this way. She would do it all over again to be able to see kids like Ellie Sanderson skipping happily through Diagon Alley.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>~Fin~</strong>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>